Wood has been milled into various different shapes for use as structural or decorative components in the building industry, as components in furniture, railcars, trailers, and the like for many, many years. Wood is structurally strong, useful and well adapted for use in many residential and commercial situations. However, under certain circumstances wood can have deterioration problems. Another problem with wood structural components is that the stronger woods are considerably denser than weaker woods. As a result, wood structural components tend to be very heavy. This is problematic in applications where weight is a concern. To overcome this problem a material, such as fiberglass or carbon fibers, which is stronger and lighter than hard woods can be used. Such materials provide superior strength combined with light weight, but the cost is very high, making them useful only in high value situations. Generally, they cannot be used cost effectively in normal wood replacement type applications.
Thus, when an application requires that the wood component be very strong, i.e., a weight bearing wall, hard wood, pretreated soft wood or reinforced soft wood is preferred. As a result the weight of the structure is excessive. In addition, due to the increase in cost of the milling processes, the reduction in supply, and the increase in the cost of treating lumber, wood products are slowly becoming more expensive as demand increases. Therefore, there is a need for a material that can provide strength without being too heavy or expensive. Although some wood substitutes are currently available (made as a first generation product using recycled polyethylene), it is believed that no one wood substitute provides the strength of real wood, with a decrease in the weight and cost of the final product. Wood is 2-5 times stronger than current wood replacement composites. Wood replacement composites are also very expensive and may cost 2-3 times the cost of construction grade lumber or 20-30% more than treated high grade soft woods.
Accordingly, a substantial need exists for an improved composite material that is equally strong or stronger than traditional milled woods, weighs less than milled wood, is maintenance-free, and is less expensive than milled wood. The present invention provides a composite material that can be shaped to produce articles of manufacture that possess the favorable aspects of wood without the negative aspects described above.